Riggs Dominates At Strikeforce

Originally posted on MMAweekly.com

he night did not start so well for former Team Hammer House fighters as both Phil Baroni and Kevin Randleman dropped unanimous decisions in their fights at Strikeforce on Saturday night as Joe Riggs and Mike Whitehead both picked up dominant victories to kick off the live Showtime broadcast.

It appears that training full time at Arizona Combat Sports has paid off for former middleweight Joe Riggs as he battered Baroni for the better part of all three rounds. Showing great wrestling early in the fight, Riggs was able to put Baroni down, and actually took his back early in the round, but couldn’t lock on the submission.

In the second round, Riggs almost put an end to the bout when he hooked Baroni with a beautiful triangle choke, but the New Yorker battled out and the fight continued. It was the final round that truly separated the two fighters as Riggs started to mix up his strikes and pummeled Baroni from one side of the cage to the other.

A very humble and emotional Joe Riggs admitted after the fight that he broke both hands during the match-up with Baroni, but gave massive respect to his veteran opponent.

"It was fun to fight a tough guy like Phil, Phil's a stud, he'll be back, he's a world class fighter, he's a tough guy," Riggs said after the fight.

Originally, Riggs was set to face former Elite XC welterweight champion, Jake Shields, on the Strikeforce card in April, but the bout was pulled when Shields opted to fight in the main event on Saturday's card against Robbie Lawler instead. Riggs made no secret as to who he'd like to face next following the dominant win.

"I want Jake Shields," Riggs stated. "I don't want to be disrespectful to him anymore, he's a tough fighter, but yeah I'd like to fight Jake Shields."

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